Based on my neighbors and people I see around here, they would wear that hat all the time. We don't have sidewalks so walkers & runners are in the street. With the cars. I still see everyone, except me, wearing earbuds. Perhaps the craziest was a guy on a recumbent bike, so he's down low and easier to overlook. He was riding in the traffic lane of a busy road, not my little side street, without a helmet and wearing earbuds. Yes, a bike is entitled to use the street but doesn't he have to obey other traffic safety rules? And shouldn't he err on the side of caution since he has MUCH more to lose in a fender bender. Maybe they figure, with more and more hybrid cars, you can't hear them coming so why not enjoy a few tunes up until your death. I *almost* wish I needed a $50 gift for a 16 yo boy, there are so many great ideas here.

Joyful, public radio is all I lusten to.....on the radio. I'm talking about TV, which is a bit more difficult to escape. Sushi, those identical jingles are crazy! Don't people listen to other commercials before signing the dotted line? On the subject of using the children....there is a local used car dealership where the owner used his adorable (truly), five year old grandson as spokesperson. I adore southern accents, but these people were SO deep country southern that the boy could not be understood at all! They eventually revised that first commercial....WITH SUBTITLES! I'm serious. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw that. They revamped the last version entirely....with the child sitting on Peepaw's knee and not saying a thing. Lol.

Wow, some interesting stories here! I guess I was lucky that my mom never paid much attention to Christmas tree decorating. When she was busy in the kitchen, she definitely appreciated if someone else took care of the tree! First it was my Dad with me helping a bit, then it was Dad setting up the tree and stringing the lights and me putting all the decorations on, and, finally, just me as Dad was re-assigned to help Mom in the kitchen. Mom's criteria: - The tree must be straight and not fall over; - You shall never use the nice new bedsheets to camouflage the old 5-gallon bucket the tree is in, a leftover piece of white fabric would do; - The tree must be done by the time she gets to setting the table for the holiday dinner; My decorating criteria as they evolved with time: 1) The biggest and brightest balls and pieces all in the front, and the small stuff is crammed in the back. A few pieces got dropped and broken as I crawled under the tree to reach into the back (the tree was in a corner); 2) All the pieces must be on the tree, no matter how crowded. That included a dozen mismatched garlands and two tree toppers. I stuck the smaller topper on a side branch near the top as my Dad held me up. My mom only shrugged when a guest asked her why the second topper; 3) Each piece next to a light of matching color, e.g. green next to green, red next to red and blue next to blue. Purple, orange or multicolored pieces became a problem, so they either didn't go on the tree at all, or got buried deep inside; 4) Placing the balls in symmetrical rows: red balls at the bottom, golden balls in the next row up, blue balls in another row, green balls in a row too, then red balls again, golden balls and so on until I reached the top. The rows of the balls were separated by rows of tinsel garlands. My high school friends loved it; 4) When I was in college, I had a bright idea of decorating the tree with red bows. I still decorate my Xmas tree with bows! :-)

Hi Trapper, They also have pH paper, which is reliable, reasonably accurate, and inexpensive. The pH meters can get out of calibration -- otherwise they are the most convenient to use. " Need to check out this RO thing " I got an under-the-counter Reverse Osmosis unit from The Perfect Water I actually purchased it from among the Reverse Osmosis units at Amazon There is a wide variety of units to pick from. When we first rented this farmhouse, we inspected the well and looked down there and you could see a bloated possum floating in the water. It was an old fashioned kind of well, consisting of a hole about 6 feet in diameter, maybe a little more. We had them put a secure wooden cover over the hole, because a child could fall in there and drown. And obviously the water was not pure, with a drowned rotting possum floating in it. So we referred to our tap water as "possum juice" and set the hot water tank temperature to near its maximum, so the hot water was near scalding. That much heat would at least kill any thing that was living in the hot water that we were washing our dishes and clothes with. We knew the well water was very hard, and my first indoor plant project ended in a heavy fatal salt accumulation in the pots after 5 or 6 weeks. We had the same problem with the well water killing our plants when we lived in Maine, only it had a modern pipe-in-the ground configuration, so creatures drowning in the water was not an issue. But its salts would accumulate and kill plants. However, in Maine we had an endless supply of snow, so I simply melted snow in big plastic tubs and the melted snow was nearly like distilled water and worked fine all Winter for our plants. But here in Kansas we didn't have a dependable supply of snow, so I settled on a Reverse Osmosis unit. I considered an electrical water home distillation unit, but the cost of our electricity was going to make the price per gallon of home distilled water too high. Our Reverse Osmosis unit works on our water pressure. It does use a small amount of electricity in its ultraviolet sterilization cell, but it costs a negligible amount to sterilize a gallon with intense UV. Since we are drinking and cooking with Walmart bottled water, we didn't need the re-mineralization feature that is an available option. The unit we wound up getting was the Home Master TMULTRA Ultra Undersink Reverse Osmosis Water Filter System We are pleased with the system. The RO water is very close to distilled water, or the equivalent of very clean rain water. The plants love it. However, if your plants are doing OK with your Topeka water, save yourself the expense and hassle of installing a Reverse Osmosis unit. As they say, if its not broke, don't fix it. ZM (not associated with any product or vendor mentioned or linked)